Elizabeth Swados had a bit of a moment in the 1970s and early ’80s. She’s much less of a name now, and if you’ve heard of her at all, it may be because of her 1979 musical “Alice in Concert,” which starred Meryl Streep and was adapted for a 1982 television broadcast as “Alice at the Palace.” Check out 32-year-old Meryl in pink overalls as she faces off with Debbie Allen!

Anyway, there’s a bit of Swados news because Masterworks Broadway recently reissued the cast recording of her 1978 musical “Runaways,” to my mind one of the most underrated scores of the 1970s. Because it is, in Swados’ words, “a collage about the profound effects of our deteriorating families” with a cast largely made up of kids, the show pops up on school and college stages. Aside from that, I don’t think it’s gotten a professional NY production in a long while. It certainly has fans, including Seth Rudetsky, but overall “Runaways” is not that well known.

“Runaways” opened at the Public in the spring of 1978 before transferring to Broadway in May; it closed on December 31. Swados wrote the score and book, directed and choreographed — and scored Tony nominations for them all. She also played guitar in the band, and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn she baked cookies for the cast and crew.

The ensemble cast included Josie de Guzman (who played Sarah Brown in the 1992 revival of “Guys and Dolls”) and the criminally underrated Trini Alvarado, who went on to star in the criminally underrated 1980 movie “Times Square.” (It’s not on DVD but seems to be here in its entirety. If you don’t have two hours, simply watch this scene which features lovely footage of the old Deuce in all its garish, sleazy glory.)

Last but not least, the biggest name in the original cast was Diane Lane, then 13. She was in the Public production but didn’t make the Broadway transfer because she took a lead role in the movie “A Little Romance.”

Swados found her actors in various NY locations: playgrounds, high schools, community groups. Then they all collaborated on the book, with several company members getting songwriting credits. In “Free for All,” the Public’s oral history, Lane recalls that “we made the play from scratch, together, out of the kids sitting around telling their personal stories” — though producer Craig Zadan, then working at the Public, also specifies that it was very clear there was one person in charge, and it was Swados.
Listening to the cast album of now, what’s striking is the way “Runaways” feels so much of its time and place: It could not have come out from anywhere else but 1970s New York City. There are specific references in the lyrics — a “child prostitute” lives on Avenue C between 5th and 6th — but it’s the overall vibe that’s time-stamped.

Some of the music feels inspired by “Hair,” especially in the way Swados features pop-style ensemble singing; ironically, a number is titled “Where Are Those People Who Did ‘Hair’?” But she mainly drew from the various contemporary sounds of New York City, from Latin rhythms (“No Lullabies for Luis”) to Laura Nyro-style, piano-driven vamps (“The Revenge Song”). Influenced by the still-young hip-hop, “Enterprise” may well have been the first rap number on Broadway. Elsewhere, “To the Dead of Family Wars” lands somewhere between the Last Poets, Gil Scott-Heron and the slam/spoken word trend of the ’90s: just listen to the way Karen Evans, backed by bass, acoustic guitar and choir, precisely enunciates, biting into consonants with intense pain and burning indignation. It’s impossible to hear this and not choke up.

As I said, Lane was only in the Public production but the cast album must have been recorded before Broadway because she’s in the credits, as on the haunting “Song of a Child Prostitute,” along with de Guzman. (Lane also sang in the awesome 1982 movie “Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains” — which, like “Times Square,” happens to be a tale of girl empowerment against a rock background). The number, declaimed in a monotone, remains one of the most chilling things to ever hit the Great White Way: “When I was a kid my parents would check on me before they’d shoot up, and I’d pretend to be asleep…” It makes the Jodie Foster character in “Taxi Driver” — out the year before “Runaways” got started — sound like a Hollywood flower child in comparison.

So, dear Public Theater, how about bringing back “Runaways”? It’d be perfect at the Delacorte. Not as fun as “Hair,” that’s for sure, but it’s a show that deserves to be seen and heard again.